. >> rose: i am pleased to have bob gates back at this table. welcome. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: so what are you doing since you left government? >> well, i am working on a book, a mental with a of my time under presidents bush and obama as secretary of defense, and doing some speaking but staying as far from washington, d.c. as i can. >> rose: when you look at writing a book, i mean, how hard is that for you to take the time anand think of all of the events and make sure that you get it right as you recollect it? >> first i have given myself a little out at the beginning by saying this is a purely personal reminiscence of what i experienced and what i saw, i am not trying to write the defensive history and others will have a different perspective on things, but it was -- we were at war every day of the four and a half years i was in office, and as i write in the book it wasn't just the wars in iraq and afghanistan, it was daily wars with the congress, with other agencies, with the white house, and also i would say with my own building, wi